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Sat Jun 13, 2009 7:23 am

Nice work Chris! Have you ever considered gas welding for those areas where you can reach both sides of the weld? Those long welds on the roof are much faster with gas welding than with mig. After tack welding, you can weld 4"-6" at a time, set down the torch, stretch with a hammer and dolly, and repeat. About 3-4 times faster than mig with all the jumping around and grinding. Keep up the good work!

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

Sat Jun 13, 2009 9:29 am

I have thought about using a gas welder. Just havent tryed it yet.
Havent had the chance to buy one yet. Dont tell anyone but theres no money in this hobby.

Sat Jun 13, 2009 9:50 am

v.dubbin wrote: Clark Kustoms wrote: If your using the rear window thats in the car and not changing it to
a oval , one cut across above the rear window will work.

So I am following along here, my bug is marked and I have began cutting. At present I have the "a" pillars gone and the roof is gone back to the "b" pillars.

Here is my question. I have an oval clip that I am going to be putting in, but it doenst have any of the "quarter panel" metal on it, its been cut at the drip rail. What do you suggest? with your quoted statement above, leads me to believe that I can cut out the existing rear window and graft my oval clip in place and then continue my chop. Is that correct? I dont really want to lay the clip down any, I need to keep my decklid. I am building a VR, but I intend the run the decklid and build up a "heb" type rear. Make sense?

I would suggest using the window section from the car then add the oval window in later. This car has a split section added .

I cut the roof section out around were the back window rubber over laps the roof so the seam where the rubber hooks is gone. also trimmed the inner roof area back so there is about a inch on each side where the headliner hooks...
... then cut the donner split roof section alittle bigger then that opening on the body and cut its inside where it touches the headliner teeth. pushing it up through the inside of the car and the cut through both outer layers.
I didnt need to mess with the vents on mine, so in your case just go strait down to the decklid area.

Sat Jun 13, 2009 10:02 am

stevenarroyo wrote: am thinking of doing this to a beetle project am hoping to start soon.

can you use any year beetle roof? cause if i get the oval window i'll most likey get the roof to but am thinking of getting around like a late 60's to early 70's beetle can i still do what you did?

thanks

The oval window could work on anyyear bug, but i would try to get a 64 or
earlyer. The chops look a little more flowing and the side posts are the same size on a 64
and down as a oval, which just looks... right.

Thu Jun 18, 2009 2:09 pm

alright thank you

Tue Jul 07, 2009 5:56 am

that is a nice split, you do great work my friend. tom

Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:32 am

Great Info. What about the window work? How do you cut the windows to fit???

Tue Nov 17, 2009 12:01 pm

Clark Kustoms wrote: If your using the rear window thats in the car and not changing it to
a oval , one cut across above the rear window will work.

What do you mean by one cut across? Can i do away with the big square cut in the back and pretty much cut the roof in two right up the middle.... since i dont have a rag top?

Tue Nov 17, 2009 7:45 pm

Across meaning side to side. The roof needs to be wider the lower it gets,
so a cut down the middle wont let the roof spread apart and the rear glass
would need to be made because you changed the shape. Plus the area at
the air vents above the deck lid would need to be cut to let the roof spread, then they would be hard to fix.

Thu Nov 19, 2009 8:07 pm

8) the split looks great... nice work man...

Fri Nov 20, 2009 10:35 am

It was a 54, but when its done it look like a 51 in almost every way.

Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:07 am

Nice thread!
KC :D

Mon Dec 14, 2009 10:38 pm

Hi I'm new to the SAMBA and happen to see this posting on Chopping the roof on a bug. I had a 71(project) Bug in my storage bldg with many other projects, I tryed to sell it, a good rust free Calif. car but nobody wanted it! I always wanted to chop one so I put an add on C.L. and offered a class on how to chop the top on a VW bug, it got a lot of respone so we decided to set a date and go for it. This past weekend we drug it in the shop and had seven guys signed up to learn how to get the job done. Oh I forgot yes I'm an old time body craftsmen/ owner of a body restoration shop, we do a lot of custom stuff, vintage race cars hot rods, heavy collision work etc.
I decided to keep this chop job simple and clean, since I was working with so many guys, no need to get to complicated. so a rear pivot 3 inch slant chop would be the theme, two days of cutting fitting welding and grinding and we had a new look to the little bug that will help it's personality, I hope now someone will fall for it and give it the lovin it deserves! All the guys in the class had a good time learning some new tricks and skills to take back to their projects at home. Below are some pictures from our two day gathering, the first pic is a pratice bug I had done a quick chop test on a few days before the class.

you can see I used a razor blade and trimed a picture down to simulate the chop before it ever happened (no photo shope here)

Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:39 am

^ cool pic

Tue Dec 15, 2009 9:23 am

I dont usually like slant chops, but thats cut just enough to look right.
I wanted to do one like that, but try moving the top of the back window down 2 or 3 inches. Maybe next year.

Man, it must be cold in your shop, every one has red earmuffs on. :lol:

Wed Dec 16, 2009 3:25 am

Don't know if I've posted this here before, but my old racecar was slant chopped - roughly 2.5" out of the A-pillars and 3.5" out of the B-pillars. The radiused door tops and de-seaming tended to make the chop flow better, but I did get a wet seat when it rained... The windscreen was laid back slightly too. I didn't do the actual chop, I bought it after chopping but before metal finishing and filler work, so I could see that the front pillars had been replaced with donor sections and that the pie cut in the rear pillars had been completed with a curved section cut from another roof to get the shape right.

Wed Dec 16, 2009 8:13 pm

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=893184
Here's the car from this thred for sale.

Tue Jan 05, 2010 4:13 pm

first post here... just wanted to say thanks for all the time you put into posting this! had been wanting to cut but with all the roof lines had been thinking a slant cut until this post...
onto my newbieness :roll: .. car is turn key as is.. all of the car's i have seen being sliced are gutted of basically everything.... have the interior stripped, gas drained... but wondering about gauges, battery, etc...? other than that cutting shall commence... thanks again

Mon Mar 15, 2010 12:46 am

Found some old shots of Section 8, i was going to call it red baron.

Thu Apr 15, 2010 5:30 pm

Hey I finally had the wife teach me how to down load some pictures of the chopped VW Bug so here are a few more pictures of how the class continued. we had a total of 13 attendees over the 4 classes with several attending multiple times. It was a fun project and a was learned on how to do custom work with good results in a timely manor. Now it is time to pass the Chopped Bug on to a new owner for them to finish to their desired taste. Any one interested ?
If you notice hanging in the background is peek-a-cu (a little stuffed toy creature) I found long ago he has been hanging around in that old truck grill for years! now look where his is hanging out! he wants to go cruisin